


Food

by tinyghostie



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Eating, Eating Disorders, Gen, Klaus Hargreeves Needs Help, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Stuffing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:15:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28340751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinyghostie/pseuds/tinyghostie
Summary: Gluttony is defined as habitual greed or excess in eating.
Kudos: 17





	Food

Ever since Klaus was a small child, he craved _trouble_. He liked pushing boundaries until he ended up over Reginald’s knee. He liked getting away with things too. Bad things. Sometimes even _serious_ things. He liked when he got found out, and he liked when others were blamed for his wrongdoings. He even liked time out in the corner of the kitchen. He liked kicking up a fuss, disrupting the general harmony. He liked a lot of attention.

Most of all, he liked being _bad_.

He didn’t like hurting other people. Sometimes he did things which hurt other people. He always apologised, and he always meant it. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. He just wanted trouble.

When Klaus was thirteen, he stole a muffin from the bakery. He didn’t want to upset Mrs Cole. She was a nice lady. She wasn’t that upset, anyway. She knew he was underfed at the Academy, and he’d done her enough favours that she believed he deserved a treat every now and then.

Reginald _was_ upset.

“Number Four!”

*smack*

That was going to hurt later. Actually, scratch that. It was hurting _now_.

“The fourth of the seven deadly sins is _gluttony_. Do you know what gluttony is, boy?” The cane hovered close to Klaus’ backside.

Klaus shook his head.

“Gluttony is defined as habitual greed or excess in eating.”

That was when Klaus discovered a new way he could get himself in trouble without hurting anyone else.

Every now and then, he would eat more than he was supposed to. Sometimes he’d take two servings of mashed potato at dinner, or sneak a sandwich up to his room at night to eat in his bed. The feeling of fullness was comforting, as was the scratching of dropped crumbs against his skin as he drifted off to sleep.

Klaus began to associate the feeling of fullness with the feeling of being in trouble.

He didn’t mind. Being full was just as good as being in trouble, in his opinion. If not better.

It had been fifteen years since he stole that muffin, and Reginald had finally decided to kick the bucket.

Klaus had developed a bit of… he didn’t want to call it an eating disorder. He certainly wasn’t starving himself. Fine, an addiction. He’d developed an addiction to the feeling of being full. He no longer ate meals. He just ate huge snacks, constantly, every minute of the day, and sometimes in the night, too. He’d wake up with his belly growling in the middle of the night, and reach over to the minifridge he had to keep by his bed. He’d lost all structure to the day, and barely had a sense of day or night anymore.

He agreed to go to the funeral, only because feeding himself was becoming expensive. It was nice to go back to the house and have all your food made for you.

Luther, Vanya and Allison definitely noticed how he always seemed to be eating. Diego even confronted him about it. He defended himself by saying that he’d been living on the streets for a while and was hungry. They all assumed it was something to do with the drug addiction he’d started to develop during his teens. He kicked that habit when he started struggling to afford his expensive diet.

The funeral was dull, just like every family gathering they’d had in the last decade.

But it was when Klaus properly stuffed himself for the first time.

After the funeral, he raided the fridge, smuggling everything up to his room. He had to make several trips. Then slowly but surely, he began to eat it all. Muffins, pie, leftover lasagne from lunch, frozen pizzas, fruit, meat. They all started blurring into one after a while. It was just _food_.

There were a couple of dishes left, but Klaus’ stomach was aching too badly for him to continue. He glanced down at the way it strained against the waistband of his skirt, then leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

“Look at me now, dad. I know you can see me.” A wicked grin spread across his face, and he licked a bit of pie filling off his lip, almost teasingly. “I’m a glutton, aren’t I? What you gonna do about it?”

The door flew open and Klaus was quick to cover his swollen gut with a blanket. Not quick enough, it seemed.

“Look. I know you have a problem.” Diego sat down on the bed next to him. “And I know we don’t really talk. Or at least we haven’t done. For ages. But I’m here now, if you wanna tell me about it. I don’t know if there’s any way I can help, but I can try.”

Klaus sighed. “I’m fine.”

“I haven’t seen you without food in your hands since you got here.” Diego told him. “I can’t pretend that I completely understand, but you can’t pretend you’re okay.”

“I… don’t wanna talk about it. N-not right now.” Klaus absentmindedly reached for one of the remaining plates, and Diego gently prised the dish from his hands.

“Do you want me to help?” Diego asked.

Klaus hesitantly nodded. “It’s getting kinda expensive.”

“I can imagine. Let’s get you cleaned up, then we can talk about it when you’re ready, okay?”

“Okay.”


End file.
